Japan's coking coal imports rose in December to an eight-month high on increased shipments from Indonesia, underpinned by the strong recovery of Japan's steel industry.

Urals-based MMK sold 5pc less steel in 2020, reaching 10.8mn t, of which 4.3mn t was hot-rolled coil (HRC), down by 3.8pc on the year.

The last increase was on 8 January, making this the fifth offer hike since mid-November last year of a total of €200/t.

India¡¯s state-owned manganese ore company Moil increased the price of manganese ore shipped from February to March by 5% compared with January, in line with the rise in global manganese ore prices.

U.S. Steel Corp. recently bought the remaining 50.1% of Big River Steel. The acquisition cost $774 million, while U.S. Steel spent about $700 million when it acquired a 49.9% stake in Big River Steel in November 2019.

SSAB intends to be a fossil fuel-free company by 2045, and to supply its first fossil fuel-free steel to the market in 2026.

Indian steelmaker JSW Steel aims to complete 5mn t/yr of expansion projects by the end of March, increasing its crude steelmaking capacity to 23mn t/yr.

However, there needs to be sufficient capacity in both the EU and UK quotas for this interim solution to be utilised.